From December 2004 until December 2007, The Alewife newspaper covered the neighborhood of North Cambridge, Mass. It was a wonderful community of businesses, writers and photographers. The paper is no longer printed, but this Web site continues both as an archive and as an ongoing blog dedicated, mostly, to this humble little corner of the universe.

My Online Status

site meter

December 04, 2007

Porter Square’s annual Yuletide seasonal gift store opened Nov. 11 at 1967 Massachusetts Ave. with a block party stroll for the local artist cooperative that operates the store with more than 200 artists and shoppers.

“Now days, there is a lot more competition for people’s time, so we are very grateful for it, “Cara Washburn, operations manager of the Sign of the Dove seasonal store, said, “It’s exciting that the neighborhood comes out to support us.”

Bob Slate Stationer, Stellabella Toys, and Spark Craft Studios all stayed open late for the event. The neighboring businesses, Falzone’s Pizza and Kickass Cupcakes in Davis Square donated refreshments for the opening reception.

“We wanted to invite the public to have a reason to let them see all of our work. We have quite the following. There are people that track us down every year,” said Kathy Tarantola, the coordinator of the block party stroll.

Out of the 60 members, 17 are new artists that were just accepted this past September. The Sign of the Dove seasonal store is open for two months and closes on Dec. 24. The regular store is at the Porter Square Shopping Center and is open year-round store.

Susan Tornheim, co-chair of the Co-op’s publicity, vends a colorful display of her knitted and felted crafts. She started working with Sign of the Dove in the 1980s and that she has been felting since 1977, she said.

“We are primarily delighted that the reception brought so many visitors into the store so early in our season. This reception worked so well that we plan to have opening receptions in future years,” she said.

“I think Sign of the Dove is notable because of the high quality of the fine crafts and art that we show. In addition, we’ve been opening a holiday gallery since 1972, so the cooperative has longevity. And I’m always amazed that this group of highly individual artists can work together in such an organized way to put the store together and run it so well,” she said.

October 04, 2007

A North Cambridge resident is alarmed that the MBTA’s fare increases are going to service the transportation agency’s massive debt creating a burden that will prevent it from fufilling its commitments or improving its infrastructure.

The problem is that the MBTA is currently in a serious financial crisis, carrying the heavy burden of $5.2 billion worth of debt which becomes $8.1 billion when interest is included, said Eric Bourassa who is a consumer advocate for MASSPIRG, where he is an expert on the transportation issues.

“Generally the T spends a little over 27 percent of their revenue paying off their annual debt services,” he said.

MASSPIRG analyst Eric Bourassa

“They are spending so much money on debt that they cannot invest in fixing the back log of repairs needed,” said Bourassa.

He said he was referencing the work by the Transportation Finance Commission, which is a bipartisan committee that analyzes transit systems across the country.

“They released a report stating the MBTA ought to be spending $570 million in their capital plan on maintenance and operating services, but they spend $470 million,” he said.

Basically, there is about $100 million that should be going towards fixing miscellaneous repairs and improving services that is not,” he said.

“The past couple weeks on the Red Line, particularly at the JFK stop, there have been electrical shortages and severe switching problems,” he said. “The T has a lot of issues that we don’t want to be apologists for, but the MBTA has moved in a better direction over the years.”

Many MBTA riders are quick to notice problems with the authority, but there is a multitude of underlying factors that are contributing to what seems to be the deterioration of service, he said.

June 29, 2007

A twice and perhaps future candidate for the Middlesex, Suffolk and Essex state senate seat to be vacated by State Sen. Jarrett T. Barrios, D, which includes parts
of North Cambridge, spoke at the May 18 contributors meeting of The Alewife.

City Councillor Anthony D. Galluccio

City Councillor Anthony D. Galluccio said he is looking again at the seat he ran for in 2002 and in 2006, if and when Barrios formally resigns to take over as the president Blue Cross of Massachusetts Foundation. “It would be inappropriate to campaign for an office before it is open.”

In 2002, he lost the Democratic primary to Barrios and in 2006 he withdrew from the hustings after Barrios withdrew from the Middlesex County District Attorney race.

In a recent column in this paper, Robert Winters wrote that Galluccio has advantages over other candidates because of his political organization. Galluccio said political support does not come out of the thin air. Instead, it is the product of a politician putting in the work on the issues important to voters. “There is a misconception that political organizing is easy. You can’t mobilize unless you’ve already done the work and unless people are already committed to you and your cause.”

Galluccio said his current focus in the city council is on important neighborhood issues such as lack of jobs for young adults.

June 02, 2007

by Nyrie N. EmslieAn actor and North Cambridge native returned to the home April 26 for the Boston Independent Film Festival's world debut of the David McLaughlin film," On Broadway" Davis Square's Somerville Theatre.

"Boston is like a character in the film," said Lance Greene, who co-stars in the film with Joey McIntyre. "The festival's director, Adam Rothman, said it best when he said a love letter to the city, it really encapsulates Boston."

The film tells the story of a Boston- Irish carpenter, Jack O'Toole, played by McIntyre, who writes a play about the impact his beloved uncle and produces the play in the back room of a pub, he said. Many of the scenes were shot in North Cambridge, such as the house at 20 Hollis St., the gates of the North Cambridge Catholic Cemetery on Rindge Avenue and the Fairfield Street, near the house Greene grew up in.

"When Joey first read the script, he felt that his character Jack O'Toole really spoke to him," he said.

May 06, 2007

An actor and North Cambridge native returned to the home April 26 for the Boston Independent Film Festival's world debut of the David McLaughlin film,"On Broadway" Davis Square's Somerville Theatre.

"Boston is like a character in the film," said Lance Greene, who co-stars in the film with Joey McIntyre. "The festival's director, Adam Rothman, said it best when he said a love letter to the city, it really encapsulates Boston."

The film tells the story of a Boston-Irish carpenter, Jack O'Toole, played by McIntyre, who writes a play about the impact his beloved uncle and produces the play in the backroom of a pub, he said. Many of the scenes were shot in North Cambridge, such as the house at 20 Hollis St., the gates of the North Cambridge Catholic Cemetery on Rindge Avenue and the Fairfield Street, near the house Greene grew up in.

"When Joey first read the script, he felt that his character Jack O'toole really spoke to him," he said.

Greene said the premiere was originally going to be at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline, but once tickets started selling rapidly, they decided to move it to the 900-seat Somerville Theatre. There was such a big turn-out, all three nights they premiered the film sold out, leaving enough space in the theatre for standing room only.

The film was an oportunity for other area natives working in New York or Los Angeles to come home and be part of a project together, he said. In addition to McIntyre, who was a member of The New Kids on the Block, Greene was joined by Watertown native Eliza Dushku, who played Faith on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and Somerville-born/New Hampshire raised Mike O'Malley, who for six years.

There is a huge Irish-American audience and also many Bostonians that would hold this movie close to their hearts, he said.

Although Greene said he agrees that recent movies such as "The Departed" and "Fever Pitch," there is a current trend of Boston-based movies hitting the theaters.

"The movie is more along the lines of 'Good Will Hunting,'" he said.

"There is no question that there is a nation-wide intrigue about Boston. There are people all around the country who are Sox and Pats fans and since this is such a history-oriented city people everywhere look to Boston as a city that has a lot of character."

The message behind the movie is the struggle for friends and family members to create bonds and bring people together, he said. "This film is more about the people within the working-class community that are working hard in order to survive."

March 11, 2007

A local poetess, photographer and yoga instructor was the guest speaker at the Dec. 8 contributors meeting of The Alewife at Porter Square Books.

"I love teaching yoga and because its part time it gives me some space to really explore my creativity, which is what life is all about as far as I am concerned,” said Portia S. Brockway, whose yoga CDs, “Low to the Ground” and “Prenatal Yoga” are now available at Porter Square's Cambridge Naturals store for $10 and on her Web site, yogainharvardsquare.com. This resident of 33 Walden St., has been teaching yoga in Cambridge for 15 years.

Brockway said she teaches six classes a week at the Lutheran Church in Harvard Square. The 5:45 p.m. Friday course is for women only. It is $16 per session, cheaper with a series of sessions and students can get in for $10.

Brockway also teaches once a week at the Boston Center for Adult Education, the Mount Auburn Club and co-teaches Bones for Life, a slow-flow yoga, at the Arlington Center with Deborah Lotus, she said.

Brockway grew up in the suburb of Darien, Conn., which is about 30 miles away from New York City, she said. Her father, a successful advertising man on Madison Avenue, one day in 1956, was watching Nehru and Aldous Huxley on the television talking about yoga with his wife.

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) was the first prime minister of the Republic of India. He was a pivotal figure during the Indian Independence Movement, under the mentorship of Mahatma Gandhi, she said.

On the television, Nehru told Huxley, the author of "Brave New World," he would stand on his head every morning before he did all his administrative stuff. Hearing this her father turned to her mother and asked, "What is this yoga?”

His wife answered with him with a challenge, "I don’t know, why don’t you get a book on it?”

Soon Brockway’s father started practicing and sensing his chakras and third eyes, he decided to call a teacher from the book, she said. “He sort of called the wrong number but ended up a student of this man, Schindra Najumdar for the next 44 years.”

Brockway said she is linked through her father, into the tradition of the Indian mystic and saint Sri Ramakrishna (1836-86), who Schindra Najumdar was a disciple of, she said.

“I’m unusual in that I have this lineage that goes all the way back, although I grew up in Darien, Conn., I have this yoga back round. It gives me the idea of transmission. Your teacher, in this case, my father, has passed on to me a particular awareness. It started when I was young so my doors of perception have never closed.”

Learning these ancient eastern traditions, in such a typical American suburb, really tuned her into the paradox between the East and the West, she said. “I feel as though it has given me a huge advantage," she said.

Brockaway was certified by the Kripalu Center, based in Lenox, one of he largest yoga centers in the United States, she said.

Brockway teaches prenatal and postnatal Yoga, she said. “The moves really help to deal with lower back pain, sciatica, and all the things that are problematic for women who are pregnant. The yoga is helpful to get them through the pregnancy, but it also helps them to connect with the baby, psychologically and it helps them to prepare for motherhood. We have a lot of yoga mom groups that have come out of the classes, because they are all connecting on a non verbal level; so when they give birth around the same time, it really creates community.”

Her “Prenatal Yoga” CD complements this method with her voice, she said. “I have a very soothing voice so the idea is that they sort of go into a trance state where they can do a lot of connecting with the babies, tilting, and very flowing, mellifluous movements. The background is ocean and we have a lot of chimes that punctuate the different poses.”

February 11, 2007

Roger Nicolson goal is to give voice to the motto of Cambridge Community Television, “The voice and vision of Cambridge.”

Of course, this is a very mocking and irreverent voice, but funny nonetheless. His program, “The Cambridge Rag” airs Mondays at 7 p.m., live and completely un-edited; it can be seen as the quintessential impromptu show. Nicholson and his co-host, Dan Gaul, engage their watchers into their debauchery quite tactfully, but pseudo-liberals and blatant non-conformists should beware. Nicholson’s off-the-cuff remarks are very often aimed at you and your kind.

Roger Nicholson

Although it is not wise to watch this show,unless you are thick-skinned and comfortable with salty sarcasm, it can be quite educational. The program is a mix of videos, Web sites, interviews and viewer phone calls.

There have been bumps along the road. Once, Roger invited a pornography star as a guest on the show, and she proceeded to conduct the last ten minutes of the interview topless.

Actually, this was the episode that led to the show’s temporary hiatus.

“He was in shock. I asked him what he had done and when he told me, I asked he was trying to get fired,” said Neil W. McCabe, the paper’s editor. “He was ranting about the First Amendment and there was no way to bring him down.”

February 10, 2007

Jethro Currie, owner of the Just The Way You Like It unisex salon has a great vantage point of North Cambridge from his store front windows on 156 Rindge Ave, on the corner of Middlesex Ave.

He gets the local scoop from on-going conversations with all his customers, he said.

Currie opened the salon at the site of a former bakery in 1993 after realizing that besides Frank’s barber shop on Massachusetts Avenue, there was not very much competition, he said. He is planning to open a barbering school in the city as well.

“There are five community developments in this neighborhood,” said Currie, who lives in the Central Square area.

Like any other barber shop or hair salon, Currie said his is closed Sundays and Mondays. “My peak hours are after school.”

To handle the rush, Currie schedules four to seven other stylists to help him out, he said.One of the stylists, Tilahun G. Belete, a native of Ethiopia, started shearing locks for Currie in September, he said.

Belete said he has been cutting hair for 17 years, so he has a very steady hand.

The business card reads: “Just the Way You Like It presents…A Style for Everyone.”

Besides a good line-up, Currie said he brings in foot traffic with his wide selection of local mix-tapes of hip-hop, rap R&B and reggae artists offered for sale.

Currie said the shop has developed a reputation for having the solid music, which kept the Boston-are emcees, such as Waltah S. Parks and his crew, coming back to drop off their latest work and check up on their peers.

December 06, 2006

The North Cambridge resident, who has lived at 25 Fairfield St. for more than 50 years and planning a run for city council, was the guest speaker at the Nov. 10 contributors meeting of The Alewife held at Porter Square Books.

“Being in one place for 50 years in a beautiful brick apartment building, it’s absolutely unbelievable,” said Gregg Moree, a union carpenter and property owner in the city.

“My grandfather probably bought it 75 years. ago, if not 80 years ago,” he said. Moree now owns the building, which he has continued to renovate to keep it up. “There’s something about it that makes me feel as though I was meant to be there for the rest of my life.”

A few years ago, Moree tried living in Belmont, he said. It lasted four months, and he was back again on Fairfield Street living in one of the six apartments there. “I couldn’t get used to it, I ended up moving back to Cambridge.”

Being at one spot watching the changes in the city and the neighborhood has given Moree a unique perspective that is needed now in City Hall, he said. “I’m the right person, it’s the right time, it’s the right place.”

Moree said, “I raised my life to try and be a perfect gentlemen, a good neighbor, to help the elderly, help people in general, and really just be kind. That’s who I am, that’s how my feelings are and I don’t like to change my feelings,” he said.

While he has been active in politics before, and considers himself one of the leaders of the drive to end rent control, he did not want to run for offce until he was voting in the September Primary and he got the feeling that the city needed a change, he said.

“I started to see a lot of things in the neighborhood that I didn’t like. I didn’t like seeing a mother of two get a parking ticket outside of Peabody School while she was voting in September. I don’t like seeing handicap cars get towed when they are doing the street cleaning. What is the reason that you would tow a handicapped car?”

In June he intends to host a big campaign kick-off dinner at Frank’s Steak House, where he will gather supporters from all parts of the city, he said.

Moree draws inspiration from individuals who have influenced his life, especially his late uncle, Joseph G. Sakey, who was the director of the city’s library system and who laid the groundwork for the city’s cable television regime, including the Cambridge Community Television.

Every year, CCTV presents the Joseph Sakey Award to the group or individual who best advanced access to media and technolog y in Cambridge.

November 13, 2006

The branch manager of the newly opened credit union in Porter Square spoke at the Sept. 22 contributors meeting of The Alewife held at the back table of the Porter Square Books.

“As a smaller financial institution, we are very selective about where we choose our branch locations. Ideal areas have a minimum population of 50,000, and a wide range of income, socio-economic status and nationality,” said Carmen J. Tirado, who has led the branch since its soft opening in August. The official blue ribbon cutting was Oct. 27.

The credit union moved into a 100-year-old building, at 1960 Mass. Ave., in the Porter Square. “We were so proud of the building,” which had been newly restored by Dammon & Allison.

Carmen J. Tirado

Although they had a bidding contest for contactors,” said Christopher J. Lazowy, who joined Tirado at the meeting and is the credit union’s assistant vice-president for branch services.

“We made a conscious decision to get a local architectural firm, so the fact that Dammon & Allison were in such close proximity to us was helpful. They are a great firm, and their work is evident in the building.”

The credit union was established in 1966, he said. It is a full-service
financial institution founded to provide financial services to employee
groups in New York such as IBM and American Express, which were
centered around the Westchester County, N.Y. USAlliance now caters to
individuals who live and work in Middlesex, Somerville, Suffolk,
Norfolk, Plymouth, Barnstable, Essex, and Worcester counties.
Encompassing most of Massachusetts, they currently have 36,000 members
and are growing nation-wide.

October 27, 2006

The poetry and arts page editor of
spoke at the Oct. 19 contributors meeting of The Alewife held at the Porter Square Books store to promote the paper's fourth annual Writers Festival.

The festival is scheduled for Nov. 12 at Davis Square's Jimmy Tingle's Off-Broadway Theater and will feature Nick Flynn, said Douglas Holder, who founded the festival with author Timothy Gager, who also runs the Dire Series. David R. Godine will be receiving the Ibbetson Street Press lifetime achievement award.

The host of the event will be comic Jimmy Tingle, who has been a big part of the festival's success, he said.

Douglas Holder

The motivation behind starting the festival in 2003 came from his own pondering the number of writers in Somerville, he said. “Since it is such a literary community,” it is a great location for the writer’s festival to take place.

Holder said, “Somerville has more writers per capita then the island of Manhattan.”

July 05, 2006

The Republican candidate for the 24th Middlesex seat in the Great and General Court spoke to July 21 contributors meeting of The Alewife held at Porter Square’s Subs Express Pizza.

“I have decided to run for State Representative to bring some balance to our state government,” said M. Elizabeth “Libby” Rirenze, who until the launch of her campaign, was a vice-president for State Street.

A closer look at Massachusetts politics shows that it is not truly representative, she said.Of 200 elected legislators, 172 are Democrats and 27 are Republican this 86% supermajority does not mirror the voting population, even in a state that has long been a Democratic stronghold.

In the 24th Middlesex, 45% of voters are registered Democrats, 10% are registered Republicans, and 45% of the voters are registered Independent, she said.

Firenze said she was leaving State Street Bank to work for a smaller company, when she decided to throw her hat in the ring.

The motivation for that decision came from a speech she heard as a delegate to the recent Republican State Convention by former Sen. Edward R. Brooke III, she said.

Brooke, who was the first black senator since Reconstruction, told the convention delegates a strong Republican Party was necessary not just to enact Republican programs, but to challenge a Democratic establishment that is distant from the voters.

It had a great impact on Firenze when Brooke made the point that this great imbalance cheats the people out of the benefits of a two-party system, she said. She collected the 150 petition signatures to be placed on the ballot in a matter of hours and turned them in just in time to beat the May 1 deadline. She is facing Belmont Selectman William N.

Brownsberger in the November General Election, neither are opposed in the September Primary.

Both candidates will participate in a Candidates Night sponsored by the paper Sept. 28 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Porter Square’s Masonic Hall at 1950 Massachusetts Ave. The program will by hosted by political comedian and author Baratunde and will include questions from the audience.

It is also true that the current membership of the state legislature is over-weighted with practicing defense lawyers, she said.

June 29, 2006

The Francis J. MacCrehan pool on Rindge Avenue opened for the summer season June 17. “The pool usually doesn’t open until July first,” said Charron Alvs, who said on any given day, she, her husband Richard and their three children can be found poolside.

The Alvs travel from West Cambridge to what they believe is the best pool in the area, she said. Adding to the pool’s sense of community, many of the same families return to the pool, even after they have moved out of the neighborhood, she said. Because the lifeguards return year after year, they have an awareness of the swimmers and their individual abilities.

We come down any chance we get with our cooler, towels, and lawn chairs, it’s one big family picnic,” said her husband fresh from a cannonball that splashed one of the lifeguards. His twin daughters took swimming lessons at the pool for the last two years.

“The dynamics of the pool’s atmosphere has changed drastically since the ‘80's and the area has really cleaned up in the past eight to 10 years, making it more family-friendly,” he said.

His wife said the improvements to adjacent Russell Field are great, too. The day before, the girls were supposed to go to a baseball practice on the new ball fields, but she could not get them out of the pool.

His wife said she is impressed by the lay-out of the pool, which was very helpful when she was watching her three-a-half-year-old twins and their baby brother.

The U shape pool goes from three feet to 12 feet in depth, making it easy to keep an eye on everyone, she said.

This state pool is run by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which is the legacy agency of the Metropolitan District Commission. The agency maintains the pool free to the public and opens it every day from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The pool closes immediately after the first sign of thunder and will close for the season on Labor Day.